Friday, April 20, 2012

Photographs
of the suicide assault teams that struck in Kabul, Paktia, Logar, and
Nangarhar on April 15, 2012. Photos from Voice of Jihad.

The Afghan Taliban have released photos and videos of members of the
suicide assault teams that attacked Kabul and the provincial capitals of
Paktia, Logar, and Nangarhar earlier this week. The photos were
released as the US and Afghan officials have blamed the Haqqani Network,
a dangerous Taliban subgroup, for executing the attacks.

The photographs show the Taliban marching and standing in formation.
Some fighters are in military uniforms with masks or motorcycle helmets.
Others are dressed in white and are wearing suicide vests.

The videos show the fighters sitting in front of a camera and
announcing the reasons for carrying out the attack. One of the videos
shows a clip of a suicide bomber speaking in English, and another in
Pashtu.

The Taliban said the fighters carried out the attack to avenge "the
two great evil acts of the brutal American forces, one of which is the
desecration of the Holy Qur'an by the American soldiers in Bagram air
base, and the second is the massacre of Zangawat in Kandahar province,"
where a rogue US soldier executed 17 civilians in the southern province,
according to a transition of the statement by the SITE Intelligence
Group.

The Taliban have claimed that more than 220 "NATO-puppet forces" were killed
during the assaults that took place on April 15. The Taliban routinely
exaggerate the effects of their operations. Afghan officials said that
36 Taliban fighters, 11 Afghan security personnel, and two civilians
were killed during the attack.

The video was released as US and Afghan officials have blamed the
attacks on the Haqqani Network, the Taliban subgroup that is closely
allied to al Qaeda and is supported by Pakistan's military and its
Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate.

Today, Ryan Crocker, the US's Ambassador to Afghanistan, said that
"there is no question in our mind that the Haqqanis were responsible for
these attacks. We know where their leadership lives and we know where
these plans are made," Al Jazeera reported.

"They're not made in Afghanistan. They're made in Miramshah, which is
in North Waziristan, which is in Pakistan,' Crocker continued,
referring to the Haqqani Network's main base in the tribal agency that
borders Afghanistan.